After the smashing success of Justin Lin’s Fast Five, Universal got moving on not only a sixth film but also a seventh installment in the surprisingly long-legged franchise. While initially only one sequel was conceived, we learned in October that the studio was hoping to shoot a sixth and seventh film back-to-back. The two sequels would act as a “Part 1” and a “Part 2”, so presumably it’s one story split in half. Lin is back in the director’s chair for the films, and last we heard Chris Morgan was working on one giant script to link the two movies together. Star Vin Diesel recently opened up a bit about the projects, explaining how it became two sequels in the wake of Fast Five. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Speaking with Heat Vision, Diesel said that the story for the sixth movie simply became too big for one entry:

“With the success of this last one, and the inclusion of so many characters, and the broadening of scope, when we were sitting down to figure out what would fit into the real estate of number six, we didn’t have enough space. We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages. The studio said, ‘You can’t fit all that story in one damn movie!’”

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Fast Five. I’m not a huge fan of the franchise but Lin crafted an expertly made popcorn movie, and in order to go bigger than Fast Five, two movies seems the only way to go. While no casting has been confirmed, Diesel and Paul Walker are expected to be back, not to mention the ginormous ensemble from Fast Five. The end of the movie also teased the return of Eva Mendes and Michelle Rodriguez, so the next two Fast and Furious movies will most likely feature a hell of a lot of actors. Hopefully we’ll hear more about the story as Morgan finishes up with the script. The sixth film is slated to open May 24th, 2013.